Thursday, January 15, 2009

No place to go...

Anyhoo, be kind to your animal friends and remember they shouldn’t be out in this shit for extended periods of time anymore than your ass should.

Mercy!

Moving forward…

The Great Illinois Senate Standoff – To Seat of Not To Seat Burris - is over. Confirmation hearings are underway and, of course, confirmation drama has arrived to keep the political press happy. And Congress is about to get its bailout on…again.

But this bitch is pondering things on the ground.

Maybe, ‘tis because I’m blessed to have a home and heat…it may be drafty, but it sure as shit isn’t the same as being outside in 1 degree weather…but I read this story about volunteers searching for the homeless to try and prevent deaths due to exposure and I couldn’t help but wonder if our national housing crisis has helped people better understand homelessness.

So many people face evicting from foreclosure that federal and state governments are considering a moratorium on that shit.

And those folks who face eviction aren’t all people who foolishly signed up from a domed from jump mortgage.

Our economic crisis is a beating and a half, but it is also an opportunity to do some inner work and better understand the other…that sometimes hard times, mental health conditions or physical health problems overwhelm us.

Sometimes things don’t work out or fail to work out fast enough to save a home.

Sometimes people end up sleeping in their car or on the street.

In the cold…in this cold…and there, but for a similar crisis, could go any of us.

7 comments:

Rileysdtr
said...

Peelable Caulk. Honest - our homestead is a drafty old barn and so I get tubes of peelable caulk from the hardware store every fall and "glue" the windows shut. It's not so strong that one cannot open a window in emergency, but significantly reduces drafts and airflow. Be sure you get the peelable stuff(!) and use a wet finger to smooth the caulk out, but for a couple bucks a tube it makes a huge difference. Also you can buy coils of thick felt for a couple bucks a bag that - even without the caulk - helps plug big gaps in old window frames.

Centennial Methodist Church at 16th and Olive has a homeless outreach program for nights expected to be 20 degrees or lower, in which the volunteers drive around trying to locate homeless people and either persuade them to accept a ride to the shelters, or give them blankets, gloves, hats, coats, etc.

So if St. Louisans have either time or extra blankets etc, there's a good place looking for these.